Yup, that's pretty much my take on it.
Eric Alterman speaks for me:
What is one to say about today?To the horror of
its well-wishers across the world, the United States—once the “last,
best hope of mankind”—is re-inaugurating the worst president in its
history; one who has exploited an attack, the success of which its own
incompetence helped enable, in order to execute an extremist agenda
that is killing thousands, costing trillions and leaving all of us far
more insecure than when it began. Before November 2, we could argue it
was all a mistake; the guy ran as a “compassionate conservative,”
misrepresented his record, Nader screwed everything up, and we actually
voted for Gore anyway. It took the Republicans on the Supreme Court—two
of whom were appointed by the guy's dad—to stick the country with this
regime filled with ideological fanatics and corrupt incompetents. Now,
what are we to say? Fifty-nine million members of our nation do not
mind that we were deliberately misled into a war that has drained our
blood and treasure to create nothing but hatred and chaos; and that the
very people who were at fault have been rewarded and promoted,
encouraged to look for new targets to spread their hubristic
malevolence. It defies all logic and truthfully, my ability to explain
or even fully understand it. One thing is for certain: Based on an
virtually unanimous unwillingness to consider its past mistakes and
learn from them, things are going to get far, far worse before they get
better. Thousands more will die. (Twenty six yesterday.)
Trillions more will be squandered. Millions more will grow to hate and
revile the name of the United States of America and prepare to attack
us in ways for which our government is resolutely unwilling to prepare.
Avoidable catastrophe awaits this nation and its victims during the
next four years as we will undoubtedly reap what we have sown.One thing's for certain, none of this would have been possible
without the enthusiastic cooperation—if not cheerleading—of the
nation's mainstream media. Thomas Friedman,
considered a liberal opponent of the Bush administration who
nevertheless advocated for its mendacious arguments vis-a-vis Iraq and
then explicitly excused its willingness to lie because, after all,
Hussein was a vicious dictator, cannot help but recognize the damage
the administration has done to the nation's good name the world over.
Still, he once again chooses to empower its worst instincts vis-a-vis
yet another abominable adventure in Iran by finding what? A single
Oxford student in Paris. And pronouncing on the basis of this intrepid
bit of investigative reporting that Iran is a “Red state” by extension,
would welcome an American invasion of the type outlined by Seymour Hersh
in The New Yorker. Four years from now we will be assessing the fallout
from that catastrophe undoubtedly in dead Americans, Iranians and
additional hatred—and terrorists—bred the world over. God Bless
America. We are going to need all the help we can get.